Many consumers create budgets for themselves in an effort to control and track their spending, build up savings, save money for a large purchase or vacation, or to achieve some other goal. In an effort to assist consumers with budgeting, many software programs and other tools have been developed that consumers can use. Many of these programs and tools enable a consumer to link to their online banking accounts to pull transaction data and provide a user interface for the consumer to set budgets and categorize transactions in the budgets.
However, these programs may often suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, by requiring consumers to provide usernames and passwords for online banking accounts, many consumers may be uncomfortable using such a program and the gathering and storage of consumer login data may make the program a high value target for hacking and fraud. In addition, these programs often require the consumer to set their own budget categories and limits arbitrarily or based on their past transactions. For consumers who may be overspending or using their money inefficiently, such categories and limits may cause the consumer to continue their overspending without the knowledge that there may be better budgeting practices.
Furthermore, while many of these budgeting programs and tools can monitor transactions and spending in a consumer-set budget category, it is often up to the consumer themselves to ensure that they stay within a budget. In many instances, a consumer may continue to transact even when a budget is exceeded. Therefore, a consumer with low willpower may find themselves unable to curb spending or follow a budget, despite all of the tools provided by the budgeting program. The current product offerings present a technical impediment to these goals
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution to assist consumers in the creation of a budget and to assist with the compliance with self-imposed spending limits.